http://www.firesafecigarettes.org/categoryList.asp?categoryID=10&URL=About%20fire-safe%20cigarettesfire-safe cigarette Fire-safe cigarettes are a proven, practical,
and effective way to eliminate the risk of cigarette-ignited fires.
The use of cigarettes that have a reduced propensity to burn when left
unattended will help prevent tens of thousands of cigarette-ignited fires each year.
What is a fire-safe cigarette?
fire-safe cigarette banding
Illustration: John Roman
Cigarette burn test
The established cigarette fire safety performance standard is based on ASTM E2187, which requires that no more than 25 percent of 40 cigarettes tested burn their full length when placed on 10 layers of standard filter paper. Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology.
FSC markings on cigarette packages
These cigarettes are fire-safe cigarettes, as shown by the "FSC" markings
on the boxes.
A fire-safe cigarette has a reduced propensity to burn when left unattended.
The most common fire-safe technology used by cigarette manufacturers is to wrap
cigarettes with two or three thin bands of less-porous paper that act as
“speed bumps” to slow down a burning cigarette. If a fire-safe cigarette
is left unattended, the burning tobacco will reach one of these speed bumps
and self-extinguish.
Fire-safe cigarettes meet an established cigarette fire safety performance standard, based on ASTM E2187, Standard Test Method for Measuring the Ignition Strength of Cigarettes.
------------------------------
http://snus-news.blogspot.com/2009/01/usa-states-self-extinguishing.html January 8, 2009 - By the end of 2009, 14 states will join the
18 that already require vendors to purchase and sell only the
fire-safe cigarettes, which are designed to go out if they are
dropped or set aside, said Lorraine Carli, vice president of
communications at the National Fire Protection Association
and the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes.
States are circumventing more than 30 years of tobacco industry
opposition to federal safe cigarette legislation (1st proposed in 1974)
by passing their own laws that require the sale of self-extinguishing cigarettes.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., introduced federal fire-safe cigarette legislation
in 2005 and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., did so in 2006, according to Jessica Schafer, Markey's director of communications. She said the legislation was met with strong opposition from lobbying firms, and given the success at the state level, there is
no plan to reintroduce it.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, almost 1,000 smokers and non-smokers
die annually in home fires caused by cigarettes and other smoking products.
New York's 2004 fire-safe cigarettes law was the first. Lauren Rivera, with the
New York Department of State, said in 2004 there were 31 smoking-related fire deaths.
By 2006, the most recent data available, that number had dropped to 22.
David Howard, spokesperson for R.J. Reynolds stated they will start making
all of its cigarettes fire-safe by the end of 2009. (NFPA applauds Reynolds
American Inc. announcement of product-wide switch to “fire-safe” cigarettes
Urges other tobacco companies to follow, National Fire Protection Assoc.
10/25/2007) Phillip Morris USA, the largest tobacco company, will not make
all of its cigarettes fire-safe, but will "continue to work with the states,"
said spokesman David Sutton. Liggett Group, announced on March 25, 2008 that
it will convert all of its domestic (US) cigarette production standards
to meet all state fire safety standards by January 2009.
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